I have been taking a second look at crocheted (and knitted) shrugs since making a few several of years ago.

I don’t know about you, but I like shrugs that cover my entire back and arms, and if I can find a pattern for one that closes over my chest like a cardigan, then this, in my opinion, is the perfect shrug pattern.

Perhaps some would call that a bolero, but I view a bolero as a mini-mini cardigan, constructed with a back, right and left fronts, and set in sleeves. So I guess what I want is the ease of shrug construction with the benefits of the “bolero” look. Am I asking for too much? I don’t think so.

Basic Shrug Construction

The most basic shrug pattern consists of a rectangle that stretches from wrist to wrist (or however long you want your sleeves to be) (1) that is folded in half (2). Seams are sewn at either end to form the sleeves (3), and a space between the sleeves is left open so that you can put your arms through the sleeves and have fabric covering your back.

If you want sleeves that fit your arms, the shrug body is going to hit the middle of your back. This is great for some folk, but I want my back covered!

On the other hand, if you make the rectangle long enough so that your back is covered, you end up with these humongous sleeves that hang off your arms and wrists like a monk’s robe. Well, I guess you would call these “kimono” sleeves, and that’s a great look, but not the one I want.

You can taper the sleeves, but it would involve some shaping (i.e., increasing/decreasing or some other method) that I really don’t want to be bothered with right now (maybe later).  I’m going for “quick and dirty” shrug construction.

Circular Shrug Pattern

So I went searching around the web for a pattern that meets my specifications for the perfect shrug, and found one on Ravelry.

Jess Hampton, who published the pattern, calls it the “Easy-Peasy” Shrug. The pattern itself is available on her blog, but I believe it comes from a  vintage (i.e., public domain) crochet magazine.

She doesn’t provide the name of the magazine, but I do appreciate the pattern instructions because they reveal a unique way of constructing a shrug that has tapered sleeves, covers the entire back, and closes like a cardigan – exactly what I was looking for!I haven’t crocheted the shrug yet, but from reading the pattern instructions, it looks like it is crocheted in two identical halves. (UPDATE: The blog is no longer available. I’ll keep searching for the pattern.)

• Each half begins at the sleeve edge which is crocheted in the round, up to the shoulder.
• From there, you continue crocheting in the round, increasing the size of the circle to create the shrug front and back.
• Once you have these two pieces made, you sew them together in the back, and, voila!, a shrug that fits like a cardigan.

I love it and can’t wait to make one. I’ll keep you updated on how this pattern works up in future blog posts.

More Shrugs Coming

I’m also working on another shrug project, but I can’t talk about it now because I might be submitting it for publication to an online crochet mag, more of a “how to” piece  (which I love to write) than an actual pattern. But if it doesn’t end up in the magazine, you’ll be the first to hear about it.